Thursday, August 14, 2014

Is Rex S. pulling his hair out of his head? Geez, it was bad, people, BAD!

The Open (a/k/a Men's) Team finished in 14th place overall. Really? The Netherlands, France, Cuba and Israel finished ahead of us (US). Holding my nose as I look at the final results. HOLY HATHOR. Will the USCF now try to pass this off as some kind of great victory? I sure the hell hope not.

The Russian women's team was on fire - totally (and rightfully so) pissed off about the political BULLSHIT that went on to try and keep the team out of the Olympiad. Ha! Up yours, FIDE, a collective message from Russia's female chess players, with Love, darlings. Too bad, though, about Lahno jumping federations. That was poorly done, poorly done, Kateryna.

One of my favorite players, Alexandra Kosteniuk (12th Women's World Chess Champion), played well on Board 3. I would love to see her hit 2600 ELO. It won't be easy, but this is one tough competitor. Don't be fooled by her lovely exterior and gentle manner; she's got the heart of a warrior, no question. Valentina Gunina was also outstanding, gaining 15.6 ELO ratings points!

None of the women had break-out performances, but Tatev Abrahamyan and Sabina-Francesca Foisor performed above their ELO ratings. A respectful nod, too, to Anna Zatonskih, who helped prevent Team USA Woman from sinking further in the standings by her steady play on Board 2. She as the only American player who also finished in the Top 10 for her individual performance on Board 2.

Here's a question: Do the big pay-offs bankrolled by Rex S. for becoming USA chess champions make the winners fat and lazy? Gata Kamsky on the "Open" (a/k/a Men's) Team and Irina Krush on the Women's Team - sucked. 'Nuf said.

Outstanding individual performances by women -- kudos to:

BOARD PRIZES:

Board 1

Rk.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Games

Pts.

%

RtgAvg

1

GM

Dzagnidze, Nana

2550

Georgia

2719

9

8.0

88.9

2353

2

GM

Hou, Yifan

2661

China

2671

9

7.0

77.8

2447

3

GM

Cramling, Pia

2500

Sweden

2659

11

10.0

90.9

2233

Board 2

Rk.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Games

Pts.

%

RtgAvg

1

GM

Gunina, Valentina

2524

Russia

2651

10

8.0

80.0

2411

2

GM

Khotenashvili, Bela

2494

Georgia

2589

10

8.0

80.0

2325

3

WGM

Ju, Wenjun

2559

China

2564

11

8.0

72.7

2389

Board 3

Rk.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Games

Pts.

%

RtgAvg

1

GM

Kosteniuk, Alexandra

2531

Russia

2639

9

7.5

83.3

2352

2

IM

Matnadze, Ana

2385

Spain

2445

10

7.5

75.0

2252

3

WFM

Frisk, Ellinor

2257

Sweden

2432

11

9.5

86.4

2110

Board 4

Rk.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Games

Pts.

%

RtgAvg

1

GM

Zhukova, Natalia

2468

Ukraine

2512

10

7.5

75.0

2294

2

WGM

Bartel, Marta

2359

Poland

2439

9

6.5

72.2

2273

3

IM

Bulmaga, Irina

2354

Romania

2433

10

8.0

80.0

2176

Board 5

Rk.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Games

Pts.

%

RtgAvg

1

WGM

Padmini, Rout

2318

India

2584

8

7.5

93.8

2124

2

WGM

Guo, Qi

2453

China

2520

8

6.5

81.3

2243

3

WIM

Dauletova, Gulmira

2252

Kazakhstan

2486

8

7.0

87.5

2024

BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCES (TOP 10):

The best players sorted according Rp,Pts,games,%,board (Final Ranking after 11 Rounds) - Women

I take my hat off to GM Pia Cramling, who continues to show her true grit. Do you know -- she was the second female player EVER, after GM Susan Polgar, to earn her GM title the traditional way (no concessions for being a female player, in other words). She is one of the people I would most like to meet before I croak, let me tell you! I would love to just take a nice long walk with her through a lovely wilderness preserve, and ask her questions, and see where the conversation goes.

WIM, IM, WGM and GM FIDE-Norms (unofficial)

No.

FideID

Name

Team

FED

After Rd.

Pts.

Games

New Title

1

12512230

WFM

Asgarizadeh, Minoo

Iran

IRI

11

6.5

9

WIM

2

14202182

WFM

Baymuradova, Sevara

Uzbekistan

UZB

11

6

9

WIM

3

1708481

WFM

Frisk, Ellinor

Sweden

SWE

11

9.5

11

WIM

4

5204585

Fronda, Jan Jodilyn

Philippines

PHI

10

6.5

9

WIM

5

14201437

WFM

Gevorgyan, Irina

Uzbekistan

UZB

11

6

9

WIM

6

1017292

WIM

Haast, Anne

Netherlands

NED

11

6.5

10

WGM

7

8603006

WGM

Ju, Wenjun

China

CHN

11

8

11

IM

8

12512214

WGM

Khademalsharieh, Sarasadat

Iran

IRI

11

7

9

IM

9

14607093

WFM

Kolaric, Spela

Slovenia

SLO

10

7

9

WIM

10

12401013

Luong, Phuong Hanh

Vietnam

VIE

11

7

10

WIM

11

933988

WFM

Milovic, Aleksandra

Montenegro

MNE

11

8

11

WIM

12

4500512

WCM

Narva, Mai

Estonia

EST

11

6.5

11

WIM

13

1800183

WFM

Richmond, Jane

Wales

WLS

10

6

10

WIM

14

13700090

WGM

Saduakassova, Dinara

Kazakhstan

KAZ

11

8.5

11

IM

15

1308521

WIM

Seps, Monika

Switzerland

SUI

11

6

9

WGM

16

13505300

FM

Stetsko, Lanita

Belarus

BLR

10

7

9

IM

17

931411

WFM

Stojanovic, Marija R

Montenegro

MNE

11

8

10

WIM

18

7101937

WGM

Sukandar, Irine Kharisma

Indonesia

INA

10

6

10

IM

19

4264312

WFM

Tsolakidou, Stavroula

Greece

GRE

11

5

9

WIM

20

14609215

WFM

Unuk, Laura

Slovenia

SLO

11

7.5

10

WIM

21

1122320

WGM

Zawadzka, Jolanta

Poland

POL

11

6

9

IM

Boo! None of the female players earned a GM norm.

Kudos to GM Sam Shankland of the "Open" (Men's) Team USA for winning a Gold Medal on Board 5. Will he become a certain someone's next Golden Boy? Maybe. Those results speak for themselves. Will Naka find himself tossed to the gutter? Well, hasn't he always wanted to go back to New York...

Board-prizes (Final Ranking after 11 Rounds) - Open

Important: Minimum 8 games

Board 5

Rk.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Games

Pts.

%

RtgAvg

1

GM

Shankland, Samuel L

2624

United States of America

2831

10

9.0

90.0

2457

2

GM

Moiseenko, Alexander

2707

Ukraine

2714

9

7.0

77.8

2487

3

GM

Nepomniachtchi, Ian

2714

Russia

2650

9

6.5

72.2

2469

That's it from Milwaukee, folks. I'm going back to cooking up some Polish-style drumsticks (don't ask) and unpacking yet more boxes from the never-ending move of Maison Newton. Smooches.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Um, I thought she did this years ago, except for the occasional urge to make some appearance fees at special events or serve the call of her homeland (as in an Olympiad). It's been clear for some time that Judit P.'s heart was no longer solely dedicated to the game. One reaches the point in one's life where too many other things are calling out to one... And, as we know, Chess is a very jealous lover.

Will there ever be another female player of Judit Polgar's calibre? Not in what's left of my lifetime, unless there is an undiscovered "prodigy" out there who will stun the world during the next 5-10-15-20 years or so. I can always hope that will happen; otherwise, female chessplayers will continue in their chess ghetto, earning half (or much less) than mediocre male chessplayers.

Personally, I won't ever forget actually seeing JP play in person at the FIDE World Chess Championship held at Caesar's Palace Resort Complex in Las Vegas, Nevada, in August, 1999. I saw her in only one game -- a quarter-finals game, on Friday, August 13th. She should have won, that's an auspicious number for chess goddesses. However, she was knocked out of play by GM Alexander Khalifman, a long-shot who went on to win the title. I was close enough to nearly reach out and touch both of them, I'd only have to have gone a little bit over the red rope separating the row of seats I was in to where the players' table were, but of course that would have been a horrible breach of ettiquette! I should have done it...

JP's legacy, and that of the three Polgar sisters, will always be part of chess lore. For that, I am grateful. They stand as beacons of enlightenment to other aspiring female chessplayers, if they work hard enough (as hard as the best male players, who get utterly obsessed with the game). Remember - 10,000 dedicated focused, hours of practice and study...that is what research has shown is necessary for most anyone to become an expert at any endeavor.

All hope is lost when her dog returns home without her; then the dog leads rescuers to the missing 3-year-old, who was called the miracle girl

August 13, 2014 by David Strege

A little girl lost in a remote region of Siberia inhabited by bears and wolves survived 11 days in the subarctic forest by eating wild berries and drinking river water before her dog finally left her side to summon help, leading rescuers to her location.

Her mother believed Karina and her dog had followed her father, Rodion, who had left to go to his native village. Because there were no phone connections, it wasn’t until four days later that the family discovered Karina was missing, prompting a massive search.

Sakha is said to be Siberia’s coldest region in winter, but this time of year overnight temperatures were about 42 degrees Fahrenheit, though some parts were colder. Karina hugged her dog and huddled up in the tall grass to stay warm, but that made it difficult for rescuers to spot her from helicopters and drones.

Two days before Karina was found, her dog returned to the girl’s home in the village Omon in the Olyokminsky district.

“That was the moment when our hearts sank, because we thought at least with her dog Karina had chances to survive; night in Yakutia are cold and some areas have already gone into minus temperatures,” Afanasiy Nikolayev, spokesman for the Sakha Republic Rescue Service, told The Siberian Times.

“If she was to hug her puppy, we thought, this would have given her a chance to stay warm during nights and survive [she wore only a tank top and purple stockings]. So when her dog came back we thought ‘that’s it’—even if she was alive, and chances were slim—now she would have definitely have lost all hope. Our hearts truly and deeply sank.”

By that time, the family had lost hope.

Experts said chances of survival for such a long period were minimal. Rescuers confronted a bear during the search, highlighting the danger of the region.

Then, a miracle.

Karina’s dog led the adults to the lost child, or as The Siberian Times called her, the miracle girl. With the dog’s help, rescuers discovered bare-foot tracks in the dirt, which helped lead them to the girl.

“In the morning, almost right after we began searching—we only made 20 meters—we saw Karina sitting in the grass,” Nikolayev said. “We rushed to her, got her a little tea and grabbed her to run back to the car and doctors.

“I carried Karina myself to the car, and she was light as a bird. She was hardly ten kilograms [22 pounds], but amazingly she was fully conscious.”

Karina was said to look surprisingly well. She was given food and drinks, and was taken to the hospital in Yakutsk, though she had no serious injuries, only scratches, particularly on her feet from walking long distances without shoes. Plus, she had several mosquito bites.

Our Commitment to Chess

Scholarships for Chess Femmes

Our Commitment to Chess

2012 Goddesschess Canadian Women's Closed Chess Championship

2014 SPONSORSHIPS

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIXApril 12, 2014Milwaukee, WIPrizes for female players in Open and Reserve sections and paid entry to next HCCC for top female finisher in each section. This is Goddesschess' 12th HCCC!

Goddesschess Fighting Spirit Award

2013 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

2013 SPONSORSHIPS

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIIIOctober 12, 2013Milwaukee, WIRecord prize money awarded to chess femmes - $800!In honor of National Chess Day and the one year anniversary of the passing of our webmaster, researcher and writer, Don McLean, additional prizes of $150 were awarded to the top two male finishers in each Section.Milwaukee Summer Challenge IIJune 15 - 16, 2013Milwaukee, WIPrizes for the chess femmes and funding a best game prize

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...